30 Day Photo Challenge

Ok, so starting the end of last week, I've been putting together a binder of photography stuff (challenges/tips on how to improve pictures). Beginning tomorrow, I will be on my way to improving my pictures as well as broadening the way I capture something ordinary. I will be posting the pictures I take each day *at least try to at least. The best part of this is that I will be finishing just in time to pack up the car and head up to Idaho, and it will help pass the time that is already going by quicker :)

Can't wait to start!! Some will be a bit challenging since there is really nothing exciting to photograph in the little town of VS. But I'll make the best of what I'm surrounded with. I may even be able to capture wild turkeys or some other Exotic Animal.

You can check out all the tutorials/help from Expert Photography's Challenge here (it's really helpful, but there are a couple of the challenges missing).

Well, see you all tomorrow with...Self Portrait.

Bon Appetite

Yesterday, I left off at Lunch. Morgan made smoothies and I made grilled cheese sandwiches.

The smoothy was really interesting...Morgan added the remaining fruit from the fruit cocktail that we put into the Jell-O, some of the drained juice from the can of fruit, Raspberry Lemonade, bananas and blueberries. Morgan says "It was like eating Barny". There was chunks in the smoothy (if you can even call it that, because it was more like fruit juice with fruit floaties. Yummy right) Oh well, at least my grilled cheese sandwiches came out, I even added some turkey in between the cheese.

 While eating our some what appetizing lunch, we watched the Olympics and then folded two baskets of laundry (including Madison and Hunters clothes, and the few shirts and shorts that belonged to mom and dad)

Anyway, as time was ticking closer and closer to the time Mom, Madison and Hunter were to arrive home from their first day at school, Morgan and I emptied a box from the garage, finishing the last of our boxes *yay*.

When everyone got home from school, and dad from work; Mom, Dad, Hunter, and Madison went off to Observation Point/Wrinkle Cove to run. (Hunter and Madison to train for Cross Country, and Mom and Dad for their Mud Run they are doing in Mid September *too bad Morgan and I wont be there to run it too, but we will be participating in a Temple to Temple relay up in Idaho about the same time)

When the rest of the family were out running, Morgan and I began dinner. I had the responsibility of cutting 2 green bell peppers and 1 red, as well as dicing 1 onion (WARNING they make your eyes sting and water). Morgan, prepared the meat; she sliced it in thin strips, and prepared the marinade.

We put the meat in first to get it browned, and then added in the bell pepers.

Here is a closer look at what the food looked like while it was cooking.

Lastly, this is what it looked like before it entered Morgan's stomach. She put sour cream on top, and then rolled it up like a burrito and then ate it.

 So, yeah...That was our dinner...Grilled Beef Fajitas! I think it was a success, the bell peppers and lime juice added a bit of sweetness to the meat.

Dinner was sooo good that mom said we could make this in ID, but we simply told her, "yeah, but we wont be able to afford the meat. :(

*Not looking forward to being a poor college student

After Dinner, we had Family Home Evening, which was on Father's Blessings (since it was the first day of school) and following the lesson, Madison and Hunter got a Father's Blessing. Morgan and I didn't get one yet, we are waiting till we get closer to leaving (which will be in about a month...WOW...time goes by fast. At least we get a little longer break than Madison and Hunter).

For dessert we had the pudding that I mentioned in yesterday's blog...Brown and Sticky. I think everyone liked it. I promised that I would take a picture of them when they got out of the fridge, but I kinda forgot. Luckily though, I have a crappy picture of them when they are in the fridge.

The two in the back, are the chocolate/lemon layered, followed by two lemons, and two chocolates in the front. Sorry I don't have a better picture.

Well, this is what a busy day home alone will get you. But still it was fun, making our first REAL meal WITHOUT parent supervision.

Brown and Sticky

 For the past couple of weeks, Hunter has been telling the same jokes over and over again ( it's bit annoying though, since we have heard each joke about 50 times). Well, I'll get back to the jokes later.

Today, July 30, marks the first day of school for Madison and Hunter, as well as Mom (since she got a sub job), and Dad is at work like any day. So Morgan and I are home alone, but Mom (and Dad, before he left for work) gave us a list of stuff to do...
1. Wash dishes in sink and put them in Dishwasher *My Job* (Check)
2. Put stuff in a box *Morgan's Job* (Check)
3. Make Dinner (in progress; defrosting meet, and the Jell-O and Pudding are setting up)
3. Empty a Box *Each Person* (Not done yet, but will do after Lunch)
5. Plan FHE *Both of us together (Check)

So...Everyone left around 7:45 this morning, and Morgan and I didn't feel like running, so we found other workouts (Legs and Abs). We chose one of Morgan's and one of mine to do.

Morgan's Choice: The  "Anywhere" Workout *Monday*

30 sec plank (right)

30 sec plank (left)

30 sec plank (center)

10 lunges each side (2 sets)

10 burpees

My Set: Tone up your Thighs!

20 Squats

20 Plie Squats

20 Curtsy Lunges

15 Bottom Leg Lifts (each leg/side)

20 Reverse Crunches

30 Booty Bridges

Anyway...that was a hard workout, my Buttom is sore :(
Tomorrow we will hopefully start running by 6:30.

After our work out we prepared Dinner Side Dish/Dessert...

For a side dish, we will be having Orange Jell-O with...

...Fruit Cocktail *yummy*

  Oh, Before I show you the Dessert, I almost forgot to tell you one of Hunter's Jokes...
"What's Brown and Sticky?"...Hopefully your mind isn't in the gutter, because the answer is A STICK!! HaHaHa...Told you they were dumb.

Dessert...

Chocolate and Lemon Pudding

I made the Lemon (Well more like mixed it together), and

Morgan made the Chocolate Pudding. (Looks like something Brown and Sticky *not a stick)

 We put the pudding in little bowls, we have 2 each of Lemon, Chocolate and a mix of Chocolate and Lemon. Can't wait to eat them. I'll make sure to take a pic of them when they are about to be eaten. Time for us to eat lunch.

Wrong Car

So, again on Thursday, Mom, Morgan and I had a good laugh. We were at our final stop, Winco. We already bought all the food we had on our list, and were out in the parking lot trying to open up the back of our car. Mom pushed the unlocked button, and the back still wouldn't open. Morgan kept repeating "I don't think this is our car" or "this isn't our car". Well, we looked to the left, and right next to the car we thought was ours, was our actual car. Good thing the alarm didn't go off, because Mom and I were really pulling up on the handle to open up the back.

The car on the left is ours, and the one on the right is some random person's car.

At least we tried to get into another White Suburban, instead of a different type of car. Next time we need to think twice before we try and get into our car.

Be Prepared

So on Thursday, July 19th, Mom, Morgan and I went shopping. We hit construction about 10-15 minutes out and were stopped for at least 20 minutes. I saw a "Be Prepared to Stop" sign up ahead, and told Mom and Morgan that I wanted to print off pictures of Scar (from The Lion King), and tape them over "to stop". And maybe under Scar's face it could say "For the Death of The King". So everyone driving by will have the song stuck in their head!!

So this is the picture I took of the "Be Prepared" sign as we were slowly driving past it...

...and this is what I want to do to the sign above. (Photo found on pinterest.com)

So, yeah. This is my plan, I don't know if I will ever do it, just thought it would put a smile on peoples faces as they drive past it. It also helped pass time while waiting, because Mom, Morgan and I were reciting/singing this scene from The Lion King.

Natural Hair Streaks

Monday July 16

Who wants to pay for color hair streaks, when you can make your own...with BLOOD!!

Morgan didn't believe mom and I when we told her that her forehead was bleeding. She thought we were kidding, because a few days previous she cut her knee while painting with water color. (She was bored, and wanted to make a fake cut and try to convince us she cut it with a knife after cutting an apple)

She doesn't know how she got the cut, but it left a nice red streak in her hair :)

Morgan thinks she looks good with red streaks in her hair. Too bad blood isn't permanent.

Maybe next time she will believe us when we tell her she has a cut (or not, who knows with her).

Little Brothers

After playing video games for 2 hours, I guess Hunter's brain was a little fried. And the fact that he had to fold his socks, he was a bit antsy. He started singing, and running around in circles, all while holding his clean unfolded socks. He was really obnoxious, going on for about 10-15 minutes, but in the end it was funny (especially because I got the last couple of minuets of his improved song on my camera, before mom finally ended his performance)

 Sadly the video I recorded of Hunter singing would not download on my blog, but don't worry I'm sure there will be other opportunities to get Hunter on film (and hopefully undetected, because if he sees me he goes even more bazurks, and becomes even harder to film)

Girls Week Out

So this week July 9-14 Hunter and Dad are at Scout Camp, meaning it is Girls Week Out with Mom, Madison, Morgan and Me!!
Monday July 9: Cross Country conditioning. (Since Madison starts school in a couple of weeks the Cross Country coach sent out a 5 week running schedule to get all "potential" runners into some-what shape before actual season begins). After we ran, we showered and got ready to spend the day out in Manteca and Modesto. We went to see The Amazing Spider Man, which was pretty good. After the movie, Madison got a refill on her popcorn. When she tried to put some popcorn in her mouth, it came out. (It was funny, but more of something you had to be there to laugh about). Then we went to Target, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, Little Ceasers, Walmart, Fudruckers. At Target, we got socks for Sock Monkeys. Madison wanted some for her Personal Progress Value Project, and Mom got a couple of pairs for fun. At Michaels, I bought a yellow SMASH book, to use just for College. Didn't get anything at Hobby Lobby or JoAnns. For dinner we got 2 Medium peperoni pizzas, and took them over to the Walmart parking lot and ate one of the pizzas. After pizza we went to Walmart, and mom bought a couple of things. For dessert, we got Milk Shakes at Fudruckers. Morgan and Mom each got a Strawberry one, and I got a Cookie and Cream one. Madison wasn't feeling good, so she didn't get one.
Tuesday July 10: Cross Country conditioning. Then we went to the Galt Flea Market. We met up with Sister Stewart, Mary, and Mary's Cousin. We spent about an hour and a half walking around. Mom bought each of us a skirt, and some jewelery that matched our skirts. The funny thing about the skirts was, we asked first thing in the morning and the guy told us $10, but when we came back at the end of our trip, the price was upped to $15. Well we ended up getting them for $10 each and mom received a dollar back from the guy. Then as we were leaving I saw sandals that were being sold for $5, but the ones I liked didn't have a size 6, only 7 and 8. Oh well, I don't need sandals anyway, I have a farmers tan on my feet from sports, and not walking around in sandals/flip flops.
Wednesday July 11: Cross Country conditioning. Stayed home and cleaned our room, did wash, and watched TV. Went to Mutual, Laurels (Morgan and I) worked on a Temple Capsule, but didn't finish (it was only part 1 of 2). The only things we got done so far was; received a white rose bud to remind us of purity, a temple card of the temple we want to get married in ( I couldn't choose, so I just picked Rexburg because that's where I will be going to school. But I don't really care which temple I get married in, as long as I get married in a temple), and we also received a picture of our self that we took on Sunday after Church.
Thursday July 12: No Cross Country, we were suppose too have it with Coach at 5:30pm, but it was still in the 100's, so practice was canceled. Went over to Stewart's House, Swam and ate Peach Cobbler. As we were swimming, Morgan mentioned something about breaking an apple with your elbow in a pool, so we got an apple and tried it....It took us about 10-15 minuets to actually break it, but it was fun trying.

This is the apple after we split it/ opened it while hitting it with our elbows, fore arm, hand, head and feet.

Too bad we didn't get pictures of us in the pool trying to split open the apple. Mom had my Camera, and she was on the deck talking with Sister Stewart.
Friday July 13: Well, Happy Friday the 13th! Today we met up at Wrinkle Cove at 7:30 to run with coach and a couple of other people who are in cross country. We ran about 3 1/2 miles, it was alright. I had to stop and rest a little bit, but the run wasn't that bad, except for the uphill up to the water tower. Anyway, after our run, we went home and started cleaning up the house because Madison is having a couple of friends over tonight for a Movie Night.

Nothing Wavering

Ok, so last week (July 2-7) Madison, Morgan and I were at UCSB for EFY (Especially For Youth). My group's name was "Nothing Wavering", which was derived from James 1: 5-6, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."
It was a fun week, and made a lot of new friends. The only semi "Clearly Something Stupid" thing that happened was we had 2 Girl groups and 1 Boy group, so we weren't as connected as my last years group.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

So two weeks ago (June 25-30) I was at Girls Camp, not as a young woman, but as Staff. Morgan and I were called to help at the Rock Wall. We  were brought up to camp on Monday morning around 8:00 am, and had 2-3 hours to kill before the YC's and YL's were suppose to come up. We were told to be on our best behavior, and to help anyone who needed help. So we did, but by doing so we were given the nicknames "Thing 1 and Thing 2", given to us by Brother V. Originally we were called "Thing 1 and Thing 2" just by Brother V, but by the end of the week the other staff were calling us "Thing 1 and Thing 2".


 Rock Wall was fun, but nothing exciting really happened, well except for the time when Morgan made it over the box!!

As a result for making it up the box, she was able to sign her name anywhere she wanted, so she chose a place where everyone could see it. She even left her signature Toy Story Alien, and even added a side note, "with Megan Colborn :)". My purpose, as belayer, is to make sure the rope is both secured to the harness as well as tight when the climber is climbing up the wall. So without me, she wouldn't have accomplished her goal of going up the box.

We also had an Humanitarian project at Camp. The Goal was to make 100 Monkeys for 100 Patients, we exceeded that goal! Below are some pictures of the adorable monkeys.

Me and my Sock Monkey

 

Morgan and her Sock Monkey

Madison and her 1st Sock Monkey (she finished about 4 others)

Mom and her Sock Monkey

 So we had a terrific year at camp, and it was exciting to come back to celebrate the 100th year of YW/Girls Camp, and spend one last week at camp with my mom and younger sisters!